The SitePoint Forums have moved.

You can now find them here.
This forum is now closed to new posts, but you can browse existing content.
You can find out more information about the move and how to open a new account (if necessary) here.
If you get stuck you can get support by emailing forums@sitepoint.com

If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Re: Kevin's Book is Released: Get Your Copy Today

Originally posted by Matt Mickiewicz
This is a pre-launch to SitePoint Forum members only. The full launch will go ahead next week across the SitePoint Network, so avoid the rush get your copy shipped to you (anywhere in the world) now.

Did I miss something? I thought this book was only available to SP viewers... yet Wayne is advertising it on his new venture.

Kevin's New Book

I am interested in getting this book. I have a quick question though. It stikes me as kind of odd that you chose hard copy, real paper and didn't go with the e-book method especially considering it would have helped keep costs down and probably profits up. Please explain the thinking behind this decision.

I have some recommendations for this book, because as a PHP programmer I think it would do a lot better if you took this into mind: (keep in mind, I'm trying to help, so if something offends you, I'm very sorry and I did not intend it)

Seems like a pretty cool book, but why so much money for such a small book? $40 (including shipping) for a 250 page book? You've got to consider lowering the price and revising the book: show the reader how to create forums, web based email applications, chat rooms, etc. If you're going to charge in the $30-$50 range you better give the reader a book that is so good, easy to learn from and so big that it is one of the only PHP books he'll need on his bookshelf.

I bought the PHP and MySQL Web Development (Sams is the publisher) for a big 50 bucks but it is like more than 3 times as much tutorial content in the book, shows you how to do way more stuff, and is very straight forward.

Also, some other recommendations are (for people aspiring to be a PHP programmer):

A little clarification please ...

Kevin,
I bought your book. I downloaded and installed PHP and mySQL no problem ... til I got to page 21.
I opened php.ini and had no problems until instructed to make the settings match:
doc_root = the document root folder of your web server

I'm not sure what you mean here - the web server my site will be hosted on? ... document 'root' folder?? is this 'public html' directory folder? Or is this a 'server' we've set up on my system?? Arrrgg. Just when I thought things were clickin' along!

Also, the next one says:
extension_dir = the PHP install directory
Is this on my system?? All I could find on my system was php.exe ... this can't be what your refering to ... is it???

Yeeesh ... makes me feel like such a moron having to ask but, could your explain further as to who's servers, located where, with samples of what these paths should look like???

Double aarrgg! Thanks for any help you can give. Was havin'a great time 'til this snagged me up. I think y'er going to earn every canadian peso equivelent I paid for your book (about $70 with shipping and GST) trying to help this dinosaur understand it.

Thanks,
Gord

'The GuruReview' Ezine - Kickin' the 'BS' out of their 'Sales Copy' - one 'Issue' at a time. mailto:subscribe@who-nothow.com

The document root folder is the directory on the server's hard drive that corresponds to the root directory of the Web site. If you're running a Web server on your own computer for the purposes of learning PHP and MySQL, then the document root folder is the directory on your hard drive where you must place index.html so that you can view it in your Web browser by typing http://localhost/index.html.

The default document root directory in Apache for Windows is C:\Program Files\Apache Group\Apache\htdocs\.

The default document root directory in IIS is C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\.

The PHP install directory is wherever you extracted the PHP4 ZIP file that you downloaded earlier in the chapter. The directory where php.exe resides is exactly the spot you're looking for.